Social and Technological Factors Affecting Marks & Spencer
Social cultural factors
Changes in consumer taste and lifestyle represent both opportunities and threats for the industry.
during 2008\09 the economic recession strongly affected the behaviors of customers, the households became more charged and seeking for lower price products with a high. the economic climate has forced customers to consider carefully before buying, prompting retailers to introduce promotions and discounts to entice them in, especially during Christmas. This resulted in customers widening their store choice so they could cherry pick the best offers, and use deals to ‘trade up’ to better quality items for less money. addressed customers’ financial concerns. As the economy worsened, M&S made a deliberate decision to invest in their prices, reviewing all of them to ensure they were delivering the very best quality at unbeatable value. In GM they sharpened their opening price points and introduced new promotions such as the ‘One Day Christmas Spectaculars’ and ‘Dress for Less’; while in Food they introduced a series of permanent good value options such as ‘Wise Buys’ and ‘Family Favorites for £4’ as well as key promotions such as the popular ‘Dine in for Two for £10’. The result is that they have given their customers better value without sacrificing their quality or ethical credentials, a fact reflected in a gradually improving business performance towards the end of the financial year.
Socialcultural changes due to economic recession can be summarized as follows:
· Customers are attempting to off-set this through clever shopping, by making use of deals.
· Customers trading down either to a different supermarket, or switching to own label or value ranges within their favoured supermarket.
· Cooking from scratch has become increasingly popular as a way to enjoy great food at home and to budget more effectively.
· People are buying on “needs” basis
· More considerations to promotions and discounts
· More attraction to cheap items
Another important cultural effect that arose during the recent years is the environmental and climate changes and how it affects customers.
Recent reports show that the green agenda continues to grow in importance despite the economic downturn and pressures on household budgets (Source: Ipsos MORI). M&S have identified an increase in the number of their customers who say they will take environmental action ‘if it’s easy’, while at the same time seeing a decrease in those who say ‘what’s the point?’ or ‘I can’t make a difference’. It is not only the normal buying metrics such as price, quality, style, durability and fashionability, which resonate with their customers, but also ensuring all these things are underpinned by sustainability. This sets M&S apart from their competitors and reassures their customers that they can trust them to do the right thing. M&S are continuing to push hard to reduce, reuse, recycle and reinvent to become more efficient across their operations.
Technological factors
Changing in the retailing methods via internet and e-shopping , many people use this methods not only as a visitors but as a buyers , the number of customers who use this methods is significantly represents a share of the total buyers, that’s why building strong IT services can be a very good competitive advantage
In M&S they are delivering new tills and point of sale software, which will speed up customer transactions and allow store colleagues to spend more time on the shop floor and less time carrying out office duties. They are also improving their trading and administration systems through investing in systems and infrastructure so that goods produced overseas can now be transported directly to all of our markets without the need to first come through the UK. This will dramatically reduce export costs and speed up distribution.
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